Team Description
The University of Victoria (UVic) is located on Canada's beautiful West Coast, and this year's team members are truly revved up for the final year of EcoCAR 2. UVic was introduced to AVTCs through EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge, and since then we have quickly built a reputation for rolling out first-class work (especially with regards to modeling and simulations). Our team, lead by John Walsh, is structured into three main groups: technical, business, and communications. Our technical aspect is divided into four subgroups: mechanical/computer-assisted (lead by Ehtesham Hridoy and Kale Bateman) design (CAD), electrical/energy storage system (ESS) (Owen Marshall), controls (Daniel Prescott) and modeling and “infotainment” (Morgan Mckenzie). Guillaume, our Business Manager, is excited to get back in shape for this year's challenges (and this guy is already in pretty good shape). He will be dealing with business and sponsorship. Julie, our Communications Manager is eager to talk about our work with EcoCAR 2 enthusiasts across Canada. Every fall semester, UVic’s Mechanical Engineering Department offers an elective, “Fundamentals of Hybrid Vehicles,” that covers hybrid vehicle technologies and design tools. Students complete several projects that are currently ongoing in our EcoCAR 2 garage. The department also offers two design project classes linked to EcoCAR 2: the Engineering Design Project and the Green Vehicle Design Project. We hope that our unique design, technical and managerial skills will impress not only the competition judges, but people in the greater automotive industry as well.

Vehicle Architecture
The team is competing with a series-parallel plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) architecture. A high-capacity battery pack will be built, using lithium-ion modules donated by A123 Systems, to store energy from the grid. A Magna E Drive system mounted in the back of the vehicle will conduct this energy to the rear wheels and provide them with motive power. This unit combines a 100 kW electric motor with a differential, an inverter and all cooling and related systems into a single unit, thus reducing the amount of system integration work required. To propel the vehicle when a high level of power is demanded and to extend the vehicle’s range, a GM 2.4 L E85 engine - with a TM4 37 kW electric motor coupled to it - will be mounted in the front of the car. Using this vehicle architecture provides a full spectrum of propulsion options to address any driving situation, from electric-only operation, to mild hybrid belt-alternator-starter (BAS)+ functionality, to series hybrid operation. The control strategy will incorporate both off-line and real-time optimization and optimal control, derived from ongoing research at UVic, to maximize the vehicle’s efficiency.